Someone has created a new Remote Access Trojan (RAT) that uses the Telegram protocol to steal user data from infected devices.

The RAT is written in Python and is currently available as a free download on a public code sharing portal.

The RAT's author, whose name we won't be sharing, claims to have embarked into creating this tool as a way to improve how most of today's RATs work.

The author highlights that the biggest problem with most RATs is that they don't use encryption and require that the attacker enable port forwarding on the victim's machine to control infected hosts.

The developer proposes his own tool, named RATAtack, which uses the Telegram protocol to support an encrypted channel between victims and their master, and does not need port forwarding, as the Telegram protocol also provides a simple method to communicate to the target without configuring port forward beforehand on the target.